How Can We Help in the Evolution of the Human Race?

The following is an excerpt from Higher Consciousness and Kundalini by Gopi Krishna

How can the average person achieve higher consciousness and help in the evolution of the race?

The surest way should be to voluntarily develop the characteristics of higher consciousness. For instance, to always keep in mind that there is no barrier, no distinction, no wall between man and man. Whenever we see another person, though we may act in the normal way towards him, at the back of our minds should be the thought that the same consciousness, the same Divine substance, that is talking, hearing and listening in me, is also talking, hearing and listening in him; that it is one substance, one cosmic medium, that is expressing itself in all human beings.
This will be in accordance even with the saying of the Christ, “Treat thy neighbors as thyself.” And it is also the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, to treat all fellow human beings as your own self. This would be, perhaps, the most effective way to melt the barriers which are created by the ego—to always put oneself in the shoes of another.
Somehow, perhaps by the grace of God, I had this feeling from a very early age. It came as an urge. So even in my official capacity with the state government, if anybody came to me for consultation, I would wait for a few minutes, put myself in his place, and then give the advice. Even now I do it. It may be unpleasant or it may be pleasant; but I say to myself: “Now, how would I react if somebody were to give me false advice and waste my time and energy?” That is one of the main reasons why I keep so aloof from having disciples.
The time has come when, before giving intensive training to individuals, we must examine them both physically and mentally, because some minds are so delicately balanced that the least wrong advice can be disastrous for them. This frequently happens. Psychiatric clinics have many such cases, persons who are mentally unhinged because of concentration or some other occult practices.
This is also the reason why I think that every word I say should be tested. I would never like to see a single idea in my teachings that would mislead humanity or a section of it. So I am always cautious in my writings: Before accepting what I say, weigh it in the scale of your reason and test it in the crucible of your experience.
Another very powerful exercise is to keep before the mind’s eye an image of Cosmic Consciousness. Or, if one believes in a God, to imagine that it is Divine Consciousness, a presence, an immanence, an ethereal eye spread all over the universe—omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
The third would be a corollary of the first: That since you now think― and you believe— that all men are yourself, having all the same feelings and emotions, and are also expressions of the same energy, you should act in ways that will help them, either by advice or by teaching, or by backing their prospects or by raising them up if they are fallen. Or by advising them where they are mistaken, trying to help them in the same way we would like to be helped when we are in distress. This would be an effective method.
A fourth exercise would be—in the morning and evening or at any convenient time—to sit in contemplation of Divinity, Cosmic Consciousness, God, Brahma, or by whatever name you call it, and continue thinking and meditating on it, reflecting on it as you would think, meditate or reflect on any stubborn problem that needed to be solved. Try to build up the image in the mind, an image of an infinite extension, of an endless duration in time. And then dwell on these thoughts, and never allow your mind to become quiescent or go into sleep. This exercise is given in many Yoga manuals.
The mind should remain alert, just as it remains alert when we are solving a problem, when we are concentrating on a mathematical proposition, or when we are studying a subject. We should keep the mind alert and reflect on the attributes of God—once, twice or thrice a day—in a devout mood, and offer this contemplation as a prayer to the Almighty to help us raise our consciousness.
The fifth would be to live a life in harmony with one’s relatives, friends and even strangers, in harmony with one’s conscience and in harmony with the teachings of great religious prophets—not to be sanctimonious or prudish, but to have healthy instincts, to practice moderation and always to behave in a manner that is noble. High moral caliber goes side by side with an elevated state of consciousness, so all these disciplines are necessary, because the stage we are reaching for is composed of all these attributes. If we voluntarily cultivate them we help the evolutionary forces to build up the consciousness that will be the heritage of the future man.